jumping...

Wouldn't you know it, this morning, after posting about Griffin wanting to jump over Ailee last night, he DOES IT. Thankfully both a free from harm and a good time was had by all.

You've reached the 2 month mark...

Time is going fast, but I'm attemping to capture it all on my camera. Everyday you get more beautiful. I'm in love. You make the cutest expressions and move your mouth like you want to tell us a story. Your eyes follow me (your momma) where ever I go.

You continue to sleep very well at night. We are working on a schedule for the day, if you are in your bed you only sleep about 20 minutes. There have been a few occations of two hours, but not that often. Back to sleeping at night, last night was your first time in your bed, other then naps. You did great- 9 to 3am (just put the mimi back in) then back to sleep til 6. I fed you then you slept again until 9. That makes for one happy Momma!! and baby.

You are smiling more and more and even starting to laugh a little. I can hardly get the smile off my face watching you. One of the things that you really enjoy is watching Griffin jump. It's a good thing, 'cause he's always jumping over things. I just hope he doesn't get the idea to jump over you. Just so you know, he's still in love with you, always kissing and asking what you are doing. He also wants to know when you are going to talk and walk.

Until next time, here's a picture of you wearing the hat Mema got. You are looking so cute, as usual!

My Three Sons...

 
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Matthew, Jon, Brad, Jeff, Ailee, Rich, Mimi, Ron, Connor & Tim



      

Below are THE three Pollard brothers: Brad, Rich (My FIL), and Ron.  This summer, without any discussing or planning each one of their daughter in laws were expecting within two weeks of each other.  Mathew was born on July 27th, Ailee: August 1st, and Connor: August 12th.  With the births of these 3 beauties, that brings Mimi's great grandchild count to 15. 

Kayla, Cam, Coop, Jordyn, Elyana, Gavin, Griffin, Paige, Kaiden (missing: Lucas, Logan, Kaiden)



Great Grandma with her 3 newest babies



Get yer apple on...

Today the fam took a trip up to Paonia, CO.  It's that time of the year, you can smell it in the air.  The nights are getting cooler and the colors are starting to change.  AND you can smell apple cider too.  As you can see from the pictures, there wasn't much apple picking more picture taking.  The trees had been pretty well picked over so we just go ours out of the big bin.  Even though we didn't actually pick them, they still were FAB!

get your salsa on!

Last week the "grils" made salsa. Thanks to Tiff for teaching us, Lil for letting us use her kitchen, Jayna for prepping my tomatoes, Jen for ordering the pizza (oh I still owe you money), Lisa (ooh I owe you money for that starbucks) for getting me jars, and Christine for forgiving me for almost ruining your whole batch of salsa. Good thing I have you gals around to help me out.

unfortunately, we didn't get a pic of the finished product :-(

all in a days work...

Tomorrow is Jayna's shower and we need a few more important items from the ranch to decorate.  Christine was so sweet to give us some hay bales and have us out to her parents property to play...Griff and Madal got all the chores done in such a short time :-)

they fed the horses...

fed them some more...

sprayed the weeds...



checked the canal and then walked off into the sunset...or just down the hill.



6 weeks

Dearest Ailee Mae...

We are now at the 6 week mark of your life. You still spend most of your day sleeping, but when you do wake, you love to watch your brother and of course stare at all the bright lights. You are doing great at night, only waking one time between 3-5am. Thank you for that, by the way. It make all the difference. If you do fuss, which is only when you have a dirty diaper or you need to eat, Griffin asks, "mom, what's she mad about." He always wants to know where you are and how you are doing. You are starting to smile too, but I'm not ready to put it down in your calendar quit yet. You are moving your mouth like you want to talk to us. Oh, and your eyes, they are the most beautiful blue. There's a lighter ring of blue right around your pupil and they just shine so wonderfully.

You have been a total dream thus far. You seem to be even more mellow than your brother was at your age, which is hard to believe. Your favorite position to sleep is on our chests. You always snuggle right in and are zonked out forever. You also LOVE to be sleep on your side, just like your Momma. I hope you look back and enjoy looking at the pictures of yourself, 'cause I just can't get enough of you. Be ware...there's lots of new headbands to try, so I hope you love them as much as I do.



Little Ailee, you are changing my world. I wasn't sure how I would do with a little girl, but I'm blessed by just your being. I love the pink in your room and I'm in awe of your feminine heart. I look forward to growing together and discovering how to raise a daughter in such a way for you to blossom into the woman God has planned for you to be.

Feelin' the l.o.v.e.

Thank you to everyone who made those first few weeks seem like no big deal. We feel so blessed by both our family and our friends. It means the world to us that we have such an amazing community of support around us. Thank you for all the meals, calls and love that you have shown us.

(I'm sad I didn't get everyone's picture that came to visit/help us!)

She's here...

Birth Story:

Of course I was past my due date, as I do...so Sunday, August 1st, Jeff and I went to the hospital at 8am. By the time I got checked in and had my first dose of penicillin it was already 11am. At that time I took cytotec orally to induce my labor. I already had a few visitors: mother-in-law, mom, friend, and my father-in-law ;-). By 12 my labor was starting to pick up and by 1pm I was dilated to a 4. My goal was to labor with the help of the bradley method. At that point Jeff kicked everyone out of the room so we could relax and welcome the lovely contractions instead of resist them.

OH, I have to mention, we had the best nurse EVER!! If you have a baby in Montrose, you must request CAROL!!

So back to the story...Carol, so sweetly, yet confidently shared with us that she didn't like what baby girl's heart rate was doing. Every time I had a contraction her heart rate would drop (normal), but then after the contraction she would continue to drop and not stabilize. The midwife came in to monitor the situation and was not liking it either and requested that Dr. Gilham come in and evaluate/make a plan on what to do. He said we'll give you two more contractions, if she doesn't stabilize we're going to go for a c-section.

We felt so safe with this man around, knowing he would take the best care of us possible. There's no one else I would have wanted making this decision. He has a sweetness/serious confidence that not many doctors possess. So, there I was, with oxygen on, moving in any direction they could get me in to get our little girl to respond. At one point I was on my hands and knees, which she responded well to. So we got to stay!!

In order for them to get the most accurate heart rate, they attached an electrode to baby girl's head, which was how she broke my water. I have no idea what time it was or how many centimeters I had dilated, but I do know they told me two more times that we were going to a c-section in two contractions, but every time she stabilized just in time.

At 3:15 she checked me one more time and I was an 8! For the last hour, the nurse had been asking me if I wanted in medication for the pain and I kept saying no. Once I got to 8, I was ready for the fitenal (sp?) and they said I couldn't have it 'cause that would stabilize baby's heart even more. I looked at Jeff and said, I'm done...I don't have much more to give...

Three or 4 more contractions and it was time to push...

I delivered her head and they found the cord was around her neck. She asked me to stop pushing (WHAT???), she wasn't able to get it over her head so she had to clamp and cut it right there. Then she said okay just short little pushes, to top it off baby had her hand up on her shoulder which made that part even wider...finally OUT she came...blue as ever. Carol, once again, amazing...got her breathing after a VERY long (maybe 30 seconds or more) silence. I started crying asking Jeff what was wrong with her and he very calmly said, she's okay, she fine, she'll be fine, she'll be fine. My mother in law, praying out loud right next to me, claimed her life and asked the Lord to protect her. YES HE DID! Her apgar score was a 7/8, which is amazingly high considering all she had been through. From then on, we haven't heard a negative thing about her health.

Ailee Mae Pollard

August 1, 2010

3:31pm
7.8lbs/19.25 in

more pics to come, 'cause you know I can't resist!!

Amazing day...

Thank you, friends for all your work in putting together such a beautiful and fun morning. Ailee and I are blessed to have such an amazing community of friends.

The setting...so pretty!

Yeah, more babies!!